India Rejects China’s Arunachal Renaming, Reaffirms Sovereignty

India on Wednesday firmly rejected China’s latest act of assigning Chinese names to several locations in Arunachal Pradesh, asserting that such moves carry no legitimacy and do not impact the country’s territorial integrity.

The Ministry of External Affairs stated that Beijing’s recurring efforts to rename regions within Arunachal Pradesh are entirely without merit. “China continues its baseless attempts to assign names to places in Arunachal Pradesh. These efforts have been, and will remain, unacceptable,” ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said while addressing media queries.

Jaiswal reiterated India’s longstanding stance that Arunachal Pradesh is an integral part of the country and that no action by any other nation can alter this fact. “Assigning invented names does not change the ground reality. Arunachal Pradesh has always been, and will continue to be, a sovereign part of India,” he said.

This is not the first time Beijing has released such lists. Since 2017, China’s Civil Affairs Ministry has issued multiple sets of so-called standardized names for areas it claims fall within "Zangnan"—the name it uses for Arunachal Pradesh. The latest list comes after earlier ones released in 2017, 2021, and 2023.

These repeated assertions coincide with ongoing efforts by both nations to stabilize strained ties following the military standoff in eastern Ladakh that began in 2020. Despite recent diplomatic engagements, including the resumption of the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra and disengagement agreements at key points along the Line of Actual Control, China’s renaming exercise has sparked renewed friction.

After five years of suspension—initially due to the COVID-19 pandemic and later the border tensions—the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra was restarted last month. The move had been seen as a sign of thawing relations, especially after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping met in Kazan in October 2024 and committed to re-engaging through established diplomatic mechanisms.

Since that summit, a series of bilateral meetings have taken place aimed at resolving outstanding issues. However, India has now made it clear that continued provocations like renaming regions in Arunachal Pradesh will be strongly opposed.

The Indian government maintains that Arunachal Pradesh’s status is not subject to dispute, and foreign-originated narratives will not affect its administrative and political jurisdiction.